2013 Season Championship Points system revealed

So, we all know (or at least I hope we know) that next year's Worlds Invite system will no longer be based on a Top X for regions, but rather there will be a points threshold. All players that reach this point threshold are guaranteed an invite to the World Championships.

The link posted not only has the points thresholds for various regions, but will also how how many Championship Points you can earn for various Top X finishes at BRs, Cities, States, Regionals, and Nationals.

The page also shows how many Play! Points are needed to partake in each event. This system has already been active this year in terms of Nationals and such. It also shows you the Best Result cutoff. See the page for more details.

US Nationals will award 500 Points for Top 8, Smaller nations award 500 for Top 4, and the smallest nations have a First Place only guaranteed invite.
However, there are still many points up for grabs in other positions - if you can still Top 8 Nationals for anything below USA, and have enough States/Cities wins to bolster your Points total, you can still earn an invite.

However, based on various Points awards, I think it will be basically impossible to earn an invite to Worlds unless you make the Nationals' magic 500. Winning every single BR you play is only 90 Points max. 100 for winning every Cities. This is 190 provided you play and win every single premier event you attend, and assuming you attend at least as many as the Best Result limit for that event. You would have to win another State/Province/Territory, and come second in a Regionals to make 400. Another way of doing it is to win four States/Province/Territory/Regionals all on the trot. I don't think anybody could do that, and if they could, they would already be Top 8'ing Nationals and making the cut as it is. I think it's more than likely that in small places such as Europe and Japan, the same 10-15 names will have over 500 points each, while everyone else barely cracks 100. In the USA where the populace and events are distributed, not a problem. For other places where people can travel to every event in the area - and thus dominate that event, I think a little unfair.

You can win 200 points in Cities. 290 (or even if you only do very well, 230-250) before S/P/T and Nats is pretty good. The people who are saying an invite is trivial I think are going to be disappointed, but this feels very achievable and I am excited about it.

I think they made getting an invite much easier than last year! You seem to forget in your analysis that Nationals will award CP outside of the magic 500. Thus even if you're only at 350 or so, a strong Nats showing can earn you an invite. Couple this with all the different tournaments they host over the year, and I think they've made it slightly easier (even if they did reduce the BFL).

I know I'm excited, since now the total # of tournaments I go to will actually reach close to the maximum number of tournaments that could count (outside of 4 Regionals/States). I might be able to hit up a total combination of 3 regionals/states this year, which would be pretty great and would probably net me an invite to Worlds provided I placed decently well at all the other tournaments and went to as many as I could.

You can win 200 points in Cities. 290 (or even if you only do very well, 230-250) before S/P/T and Nats is pretty good. The people who are saying an invite is trivial I think are going to be disappointed, but this feels very achievable and I am excited about it.